138-453: Bamyan ( Dari : بامیان ), also spelled Bamiyan or Bamian , is the capital of Bamyan Province in central Afghanistan . Its population of approximately 70,000 people makes it the largest city in Hazarajat . Bamyan is at an altitude of about 8,366 feet (2,550 m) above sea level . The Bamyan Airport is located in the middle of the city. The driving distance between Bamyan and Kabul in
276-481: A 2-hour drive. The connection is almost completed missing just 15 km of paving. The main crops are wheat , barley , mushung , and baquli, grown in spring. When crops are damaged by unusually harsh weather, residents herd their livestock down to Ghazni and Maidan provinces to exchange for food. Bamyan has a cold desert climate ( Köppen BWk ), with cold winters and warm, dry summers. Precipitation mostly falls in late winter and spring. The city of Bamyan
414-557: A Crafts and Folk Art city in 2017. "UNESCO noted the Bamiyan Valley is the most monumental expression of western Buddhism". Bamiyan is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in Danger. On 15 August 2021, Bamyan was seized again by Taliban fighters, becoming the twenty-ninth provincial capital to be captured by the Taliban as part of the wider 2021 Taliban offensive . The name "Bamiyan"
552-497: A corruption of the ancient Latin Indicus (Caucasus); the entry mentions the interpretation first given by Ibn Batuta as a popular theory already at that time, despite doubts cast upon it. In Vedic Sanskrit , the range was known as upariśyena , and in Avestan , as upāirisaēna (from Proto-Iranian * upārisaina - 'covered with juniper'). It can alternatively be interpreted as "beyond
690-660: A distinction between varieties of the Sistan region and the varieties in the Western group. However Encyclopaedia Iranica considers the Sistani dialect to constitute their own distinctive group, with notable influences from Balochi . Dari does not distinguish [ ɪ ] and [ ɛ ] in any position, these are distinct phonemes in English but are in un-conditional free variation in nearly all dialects of Dari. There are no environmental factors related to
828-615: A height of about 3,300 m (10,800 ft) one finds coniferous forests with Cedrus , Picea , Abies , Pinus , and junipers ". The inner valleys of the Hindu Kush see little rain and have desert vegetation. On the other hand, Eastern Himalaya is home to multiple biodiversity hotspots, and 353 new species (242 plants, 16 amphibians , 16 reptiles , 14 fish , two birds , two mammals and 61+ invertebrates ) have been discovered there in between 1998 and 2008, with an average of 35 new species finds every year. With Eastern Himalaya included,
966-477: A killer, who kills, slays, murders, oppresses as azhdaha-kush ['dragon-slayer']." The term was earliest used by Ibn Battuta . According to him, Hindu Kush means Hindu Killer as slaves from the Indian subcontinent often died in the harsh climatic conditions of the mountains while being taken to Turkestan . Several other theories have been propounded as to the origins of the name. According to Nigel Allan,
1104-659: A large part of which is now in the Schøyen Collection . This has created a sensation among scholars, and the find has been compared with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls . From 2003 to 2013, a Provincial Reconstruction Team was based in Bamyan, first manned by U.S. forces, and, since April 2003, by New Zealand Defence Force personnel which made up the Provincial Reconstruction Team . The 34th Division in
1242-444: A modern dialect form of Persian that is the standard language used in administration, government, radio, television, and print media. Because of a preponderance of Dari native speakers, who normally refer to the language as Farsi ( فارسی , "Persian"), it is also known as "Afghan Persian" in some Western sources. There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari . The majority of scholars believe that Dari refers to
1380-518: A nearly identical categorization but considered varieties spoken in the Sistan region to constitute a distinct group. Takhar and the MOE only discussed vocabulary differences between the dialect groups and did not extensively discuss phonological differences between these groups. However there was a noticeable difference in the romanizations of the Western dialects and the South-Eastern dialects. Chiefly that
1518-648: A shared heritage that includes thinkers, writers, and poets of the Farsi language against those who believe that Dari has older roots and provides a distinct identity that cannot be confused with Iran's claim. Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an 800-kilometre-long (500 mi) mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas . It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan . The range forms
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#17328442626181656-460: A wide area in the west of Kabul which is mainly recognized as Dashti Barchi, and some regions near Herat . As a group, the Hazaragi varieties are distinguished by the presence of retroflex consonants and distinctive vocabulary. However it has been shown that Hazaragi is more accurately a sub-dialect of Dari rather than its own variety of Persian. Afghanistan's Ministry of Education does not make
1794-483: Is 4,435. The Bamyan valley marked the most westerly point of Buddhist expansion and was a crucial hub of trade for much of the second millennium CE. It was a place where East met West and its archaeology reveals a blend of Greek, Turkic, Persian, Chinese, and Indian influences. The valley is one of Afghanistan's most touristic places. The city of Bamyan joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as
1932-668: Is Band-e Zulfiqar, which measures some 6.5 km (4 mi) in length. The most accessible of the lakes is Band-e-Haibat, literally translated as Dam of Awe. The numerous remains of monasteries, painted caves, statues and fortifications have been on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage since 2003. At the same time, they were also entered on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger. The protected world heritage sites include in detail: "Ski championships" have been held in Bamiyan since 2011. It
2070-605: Is a one-time race with a mass start. The first skiers were equipped with modern equipment in 2011. However, locals also used "replicas" of skis to move around in the mountains, for example in search of runaway pets. On November 4, 2016, a marathon took place in Bamiyan, in which women athletes participated for the first time. Dari language Dari ( / ˈ d ɑː r i , ˈ d æ -/ ; endonym : دری [d̪ɐˈɾiː] ), Dari Persian ( فارسی دری , Fārsī-yi Darī , [fʌːɾˈsiːjɪ d̪ɐˈɾiː] or Fārsī-ye Darī , [fʌːɾˈsiːjɛ d̪ɐˈɾiː] ), or Eastern Persian
2208-462: Is assumed that at least half of the one thousand caves known today must have been inhabited. Almost a hundred years later, in 727, the Korean monk Hyecho (Hui Chao) described Bamiyan as an independent and powerful kingdom, despite the presence of Muslim-Arab troops in the north and south of the region. On the cliff face of a mountain nearby, three colossal statues were carved 4,000 feet apart. One of them
2346-413: Is claimed that he was taking revenge for his slain grandson. Bamiyan was unable to recover from this event for a long time. Even decades later, the city was still devastated, according to a report by a Persian historian. Several decades passed before a town appeared in the valley again, but it could only acquire regional importance. The Qarlughids established their capital in the city soon thereafter. There
2484-465: Is derived from Middle Persian Bamikan . The 2,500 m high valley is about 230 km northwest of Kabul and separates the Hindu Kush mountain range from the Koh-e Baba mountains. On the north side, there is an approximately 1.5 kilometers long, high, almost vertical sandstone cliff that was formed by a glacier. The Buddha statues and most of the caves in the valley were carved into this rock face. In
2622-458: Is estimated to be around 1,000. The time of origin is dated to the period from 450 to 850 AD. Some of the murals have been identified as the oldest known oil paintings in the world, dating to the 7th century. An earlier chronicle estimates the number at 12,000 caves, a number that is exaggerated for the Bamiyan Valley alone, but seems appropriate for the entire region, including around 50 km of surrounding valleys. The oil painting of Bamyan Buddha
2760-674: Is its conservative nature compared to, for example, the Tehrani dialect. This can be seen in its Phonology (e.g. it's preservation of "Majhul" vowels), Morhphonology and Syntax, and it's Lexicon. A further distinction may be made between varieties in and near Kabul and varieties in and near Afghan Turkistan. With dialects near Kabul exhibiting some influences from languages in southern Afghanistan and South Asia and dialects in Afghan Turkistan exhibiting more influence from Tajik . All South-Eastern varieties exhibited some influence from Uzbek . Despite
2898-540: Is over 5,800 m (19,000 ft) and are called the Kaja Mohammed range. ICIMOD 's first annual regional 30-meter resolution land cover database of HKH generated using public domain Landsat images demonstrated that grassland was the most dominant land cover, followed by barren land, which includes areas with bare areas. In 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, grassland covered 37.2%, 37.6%, 38.7%, and 38.2%, respectively, of
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#17328442626183036-473: Is popular and largely used by classic singers and folklore, musicians mainly played in central. traditional Dambura festival is held each year in a bid to help improve the tourism industry of Bamyan province. "Bamyan art bazaar" which made by Afghan women in Bamyan where they display and sell their handicrafts to internal and foreign tourists who visit the province. Carpets, rugs, felts, embroidery, pottery and other local women's products can be mostly found in
3174-533: Is related to the 5th to 9th century and those paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was "invented" in Europe. The scientists discovered that 12 out of the 50 caves were painted with oil painting technique, using perhaps walnut and poppy seed drying oils. In late ancient times, the adjoining room was mainly in the hands of tribes who were counted among the Iranian Huns and were in conflict with
3312-521: Is some evidence that Bamyan was somewhat populated and reconstructed during the Timurid period in the 15th century. From the age of the Timurids , there is said to have been a city again in Bamiyan. However, the general decline in coast-to-coast trade during this time meant that the city could no longer grow to its old size and could no longer achieve supra-regional importance. Bamiyan is also mentioned again in
3450-491: Is sugar – Rhyme method in Dari is sweeter Uzūbat usually means "bliss", "delight", "sweetness"; in language, literature and poetry, uzubat also means "euphonious" or "melodic". Referring to the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez , Iqbal wrote: شکرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند Šakkar-šakan šavand hama tūtīyān-i Hind زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود zīn qand-i Pārsī ki ba Bangāla mē-ravad English translation: All
3588-704: Is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan . Dari Persian is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language; it is known as Afghan Persian or Eastern Persian in many Western sources. The decision to rename the local variety of Persian in 1964 was more political than linguistic to support an Afghan state narrative. Dari Persian is most closely related to Tajiki Persian as spoken in Tajikistan and
3726-464: Is the common language spoken in cities such as Balkh , Mazar-i-Sharif , Herat , Fayzabad , Panjshir , Bamiyan , and the Afghan capital of Kabul where all ethnic groups are settled. Dari Persian-speaking communities also exist in southwestern and eastern Pashtun-dominated areas such as in the cities of Ghazni , Farah , Zaranj , Lashkar Gah , Kandahar , and Gardez . Dari Persian has contributed to
3864-618: Is the language of the cities of Madā'en; it is spoken by those who are at the king's court. [Its name] is connected with presence at court. Among the languages of the people of Khorasan and the east, the language of the people of Balkh is predominant." Dari Persian spoken in Afghanistan is not to be confused with the language of Iran called Dari or Gabri, which is a language of the Central Iranian subgroup spoken in some Zoroastrian communities. Dari comes from Middle Persian which
4002-402: The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan , Dari Persian is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan; the other is Pashto . Dari Persian is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the native language of approximately 25–55% of the population . Dari Persian serves as the lingua franca of the country and is understood by up to 78% of the population. Dari Persian served as
4140-476: The Bamiyan Buddhas . The range and communities settled in it hosted ancient monasteries, important trade networks and travelers between Central Asia and South Asia . While the vast majority of the region has been majority- Muslim for several centuries now, certain portions of the Hindu Kush only became Islamized relatively recently, such as Kafiristan , which retained ancient polytheistic beliefs until
4278-667: The Broghil Pass at 12,460 feet in Pakistan, and the Dorah Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 14,000 feet. Other high passes in Pakistan include the Lowari Pass at 10,200 feet, the Gomal Pass . The Darmodar Aghost Pass is at elevation of 4,371 m (14,341 ft). The Ishkoman Aghost Pass is at elevation of 4,587 m (15,049 ft). The Hindu Kush form the boundary between
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4416-624: The Cold War the Hindu Kush range became a strategic theatre, especially during the 1980s when Soviet forces and their Afghan allies fought the Afghan mujahideen channelled through Pakistan. After the Soviet withdrawal and the end of the Cold War, many mujahideen morphed into Taliban and al-Qaeda forces imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law ( Sharia ), with Kabul, these mountains, and other parts of Afghanistan as their base. Other Mujahideen joined
4554-559: The Hephthalite rule. Other attractions close to the city include Shahr-e Gholghola and Zuhak . In 2008, Bamyan was found to be the home of the world's oldest oil paintings. At the end of the 10th century, there was a Buddhist culture in which several thousand Buddhist monks lived in caves carved into the mountain. The 53 meters known as the Salsal and 35 meters known as Shahmama are the high-standing Buddha statues and best-known monuments left by
4692-561: The Middle East passed through it. The Hunas made it their capital in the 5th century. Because of the cliff of the Buddhas, the ruins of the Monk's caves, Shahr-e Gholghola ('City of Sighs', the ruins of an ancient city destroyed by Genghis Khan during the 1221 siege of Bamiyan ), and its local scenery, it is one of the most visited places in Afghanistan. The Shahr-e Zuhak mound ten miles south of
4830-575: The Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan with peaks over 7,000 m (23,000 ft). This section extends from the Durāh Pass to the Baroghil Pass at the border between northeastern Afghanistan and north Pakistan. The Chitral District of Pakistan is home to Tirich Mir , Noshaq , and Istoro Nal – the highest peaks in the Hindu Kush. The ridges between Khawak Pass and Badakshan
4968-642: The Sassanid Empire . After 560, the Gök Turks became the dominant power in Transoxania . Xuanzang , a Chinese monk, visited the valley around 630 AD and was welcomed by King Bamiyan. He spent around 15 days in the valley and described the Buddha statues present in the valley, as well as the location of some temples, whereby his information was confirmed by science as very exact. Based on further statements by Xuanzang, it
5106-639: The Taliban and al-Qaeda grew, and a scene of modern era warfare in Afghanistan. Ancient mines producing lapis lazuli are found in Kowkcheh Valley, while gem-grade emeralds are found north of Kabul in the valley of the Panjsher River and some of its tributaries. According to Walter Schumann, the West Hindu Kush mountains have been the source of the finest Lapis lazuli for thousands of years. Buddhism
5244-736: The White Mountains near the Kabul River . It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus ) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. The range has numerous high snow-capped peaks, with the highest point being Tirich Mir or Terichmir at 7,708 metres (25,289 ft) in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan. The Hindu Kush range region was a historically significant center of Buddhism , with sites such as
5382-681: The ezāfe ) have often been employed to coin words for political and cultural concepts, items, or ideas that were historically unknown outside the South Asian region, as is the case with the aforementioned "borrowings". Dari Persian has a rich and colorful tradition of proverbs that deeply reflect Afghan culture and relationships, as demonstrated through the works of Rumi and other literature. There are phonological, lexical, and morphological differences between Afghan Persian and Iranian Persian. For example Afghan Farsi has more vowels than Iranian Farsi. However, there are no significant differences in
5520-451: The growing season has increased by 4.25 days per decade. There is less conclusive evidence of light precipitation becoming less frequent while heavy precipitation became both more frequent and more intense. Finally, since 1970s glaciers have retreated everywhere in the region beside Karakoram , eastern Pamir , and western Kunlun , where there has been an unexpected increase in snowfall. Glacier retreat had been followed by an increase in
5658-455: The 1398 invasion of the northern Indian subcontinent. Timur , also known as Temur or Tamerlane in Western scholarly literature, marched with his army to Delhi, plundering and killing all the way. He arrived in the capital Delhi where his army. Then he carried the wealth and the captured slaves, returning to his capital through the Hindu Kush. Babur , the founder of the Mughal Empire,
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5796-468: The 19th century when it was converted to Islam by the Durrani Empire and renamed Nuristan ("land of light"). The Hindu Kush range has also been the passageway for invasions of the Indian subcontinent , and continues to be important to contemporary warfare in Afghanistan. The earliest known usage of the Persian name Hindu Kush occurs on a map published about 1000 CE. Some modern scholars remove
5934-415: The 19th century, at an extensive scale, around the Hindu Kush. According to a British Anti-Slavery Society report of 1874, the governor of Faizabad, Mir Ghulam Bey, kept 8,000 horses and cavalrymen who routinely captured non-Muslims as well as Shia Muslims as slaves. Others alleged to be involved in the slave trade were feudal lords such as Ameer Sheer Ali. The isolated communities in the Hindu Kush were one of
6072-533: The Afghan Military or Militia Forces. As of 2014, the population of the city of Bamyan is approximately 70,000. The population of the entire Bamiyan province is estimated 425,500. The potato Flower Festival is a famous festival in Bamyan as Agricultural for people which is organized by farmers and government organization and promote local Product. The Potato Flower Festival ( Gol-e- Kachalo in Dari) which celebrated for
6210-605: The Afghanistan Ministry of Education referring to this group as "South-Eastern" some of the varieties included are in the north. As seen in many Hazaragi varieties, certain Eastern Dialects have developed a system of retroflex consonants under pressure from Pashto. They are not widespread, however. The Kabuli dialect has become the standard model of Dari Persian in Afghanistan, as has the Tehrani dialect in relation to
6348-542: The Buddhists, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Furthermore, there are several cultural sites left from both the Buddhist and the later Islamic era of the valley. After the overthrown of the Taliban from power in 2002, considerable efforts had been made to preserve the cultural monuments in the valley. The city of Bamyan has four districts and a total land area of 3,539 hectares. The total number of dwellings in this city
6486-587: The Hazara tribes of the surrounding mountains. In 1840, the region was under conflict because of the First Anglo-Afghan War when the British routed Dost Mohammad Khan and his forces. The first European to see Bamyan was William Moorcroft (explorer) about 1824. During 1998–2001, Bamyan has been the center of combat between Taliban forces and the anti-Taliban alliance; mainly Hizb-i-Wahdat – amid clashes among
6624-416: The Hindu Kush area. Between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, a number of Buddhist sites arose along the trade routes at that. Bamiyan itself was to become the largest and most famous of these Buddhist sites. However, the exact point in time when Buddhism found its way into Bamiyan itself is not known. This Buddhist art was significantly influenced by the earlier Gandhara culture, which was developed further in
6762-609: The Hindu Kush base before monsoons arrived in the northwestern part of the subcontinent. He retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab. In 1017, the Iranian Islamic historian Al-Biruni was deported after a war that Mahmud of Ghazni won, to the northwest Indian subcontinent under Mahmud's rule. Al Biruni stayed in the region for about fifteen years, learnt Sanskrit, and translated many Indian texts, and wrote about Indian society, culture, sciences, and religion in Persian and Arabic. He stayed for some time in
6900-580: The Hindu Kush expanding into the Oxus valley region of Central Asia. Buddhism later disappeared and locals were forced to convert to Islam. Richard Bulliet also proposes that the area north of Hindu Kush was center of a new sect that had spread as far as Kurdistan , remaining in existence until the Abbasid times. The area eventually came under the control of the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul. The Islamic conquest of
7038-548: The Hindu Kush in the north merges with the Karakoram Range. Towards its southern end, it connects with the Spin Ghar Range near the Kabul River . Many peaks of the range are between 4,400 and 5,200 m (14,500 and 17,000 ft); however, some are much higher, with an average peak height of 4,500 metres (14,800 feet). The mountains of the Hindu Kush range diminish in height as they stretch westward. Near Kabul, in
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#17328442626187176-544: The Hindu Kush range. He began a military campaign that rapidly brought both sides of the Hindu Kush range under his rule. From his mountainous Afghani base, he systematically raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030. Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries of kingdoms, sacked cities, and destroyed Hindu temples, with each campaign starting every spring, but he and his army returned to Ghazni and
7314-406: The Hindu Kush region, particularly near Kabul. In 1019, he recorded and described a solar eclipse in what is the modern era Laghman Province of Afghanistan through which Hindu Kush pass. Al Biruni also wrote about early history of the Hindu Kush region and Kabul kings, who ruled the region long before he arrived, but this history is inconsistent with other records available from that era. Al Biruni
7452-625: The Indian subcontinent in 327 BCE;_his armies built several towns in this region over the intervening two years. After Alexander died in 323 BCE, the region became part of the Seleucid Empire , according to the ancient history of Strabo written in the 1st century BCE, before it became a part of the Indian Maurya Empire around 305 BCE. The region became a part of the Kushan Empire around
7590-518: The Indus River valley such as Sind . Kabul fell to the army of Al-Ma'mun , the seventh Abbasid caliph, in 808 and the local king agreed to accept Islam and pay annual tributes to the caliph. However, states André Wink, inscriptional evidence suggests that the Kabul area near Hindu Kush had an early presence of Islam. When the extraction of silver from the mines in the Hindu Kush was at its greatest (c.850),
7728-433: The Indus watershed in South Asia, and Amu Darya watershed in Central Asia. Melt water from snow and ice feeds major river systems in Central Asia: the Amu Darya (which feeds the Aral Sea ), Helmand River (which is a major source of water for the Sistan Basin in southern Afghanistan and Iran), and the Kabul River – the last of which is a major tributary of the Indus River. Smaller rivers with headwaters in
7866-464: The Northern Alliance to oppose the Taliban rule. After the 11 September 2001 terror attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. , the American and ISAF campaign against Al Qaeda and their Taliban allies made the Hindu Kush once again a militarised conflict zone. The 2019 Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment concluded that between 1901 and 2014, the Hindu Kush Himalaya (or HKH) region had already experienced warming of 0.1 °C per decade, with
8004-446: The Oxus River region, Afghanistan, and Khorasan after the Arab conquests and during Islamic-Arab rule. The replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khorasan. Dari Persian spread and led to the extinction of Eastern Iranian languages like Bactrian and Khwarezmian with only a tiny amount of Sogdian descended Yaghnobi speakers remaining, as
8142-552: The Persian in Iran. Since the 1940s, Radio Afghanistan has broadcast its Dari programs in Kabuli Dari, which ensured the homogenization between the Kabuli version of the language and other dialects of Dari Persian spoken throughout Afghanistan. Since 2003, the media, especially the private radio and television broadcasters , have carried out their Dari programs using the Kabuli variety. The Western group includes various varieties spoken in and around: Herat , Badghis , Farah and Ghor . Varieties in this group share many features with
8280-443: The Persian word dar or darbār ( دربار ), meaning "court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids . The original meaning of the word dari is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (cited by Ibn al-Nadim in Al-Fehrest ). According to him, " Pārsī was the language spoken by priests, scholars, and the like; it is the language of Fars ." This language refers to Middle Persian . As for Dari , he says, "it
8418-400: The Shibar Pass in the west and the Khawak Pass in the east. The central Hindu Kush peaks rise to over 6,800 m (22,300 ft), and this section has numerous spurs between the Khawak Pass in the east and the Durāh Pass in the west. In 2005 and 2015 there were some major earthquakes. The eastern Hindu Kush, also known as the "High Hindu Kush", is mostly located in northern Pakistan and
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#17328442626188556-475: The ancestors of Tajiks started speaking Dari after relinquishing their original language (most likely Bactrian) around this time, due to the fact that the Arab-Islamic army which invaded Central Asia also included some Persians who governed the region like the Sassanids . Persian was a prestigious high-ranking language and was further rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids. Persian also phased out Sogdian. The role of lingua franca that Sogdian originally played
8694-399: The ancient Indian subcontinent. One of the early Buddhist schools , the Mahāsāṃghika - Lokottaravāda , was prominent in the area of Bamiyan. The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahāyāna sūtras , have been discovered in
8832-463: The appearance of [ ɪ ] or [ ɛ ] and native Dari speakers do not perceive them as different phonemes (that is to say, the English words bet [b ɛ t] and bit [b ɪ t] would be nearly indistinguishable to a native Dari speaker). However, speakers in Urban regions of Kabul, Panjšir and other nearby provinces in southern and eastern Afghanistan tend to realize the vowel as [ ɪ ]. Speakers of Dari in central Afghanistan (i.e. Hazaragi speakers) tend to realize
8970-431: The area happened under Sabuktigin who conquered Jayapala 's dominion west of Peshawar in the 10th century. The significance of the Hindu Kush mountain ranges has been recorded since the time of Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire . Alexander entered the Indian subcontinent through the Hindu Kush as his army moved past the Afghan Valleys in the spring of 329 BCE. He moved towards the Indus Valley river region in
9108-410: The area, part of the 4th Corps , was affiliated with Karim Khalili . Bamiyan was one of the first pilot centers for the Afghan New Beginnings Programme of Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration . On 4 July 2004 disarmament began in Bamiyan, and on 15 July 2004 disarmament was continued in Bamiyan including soldiers from the 34th and 35th Divisions of the then Afghan Army , often referred to as
9246-450: The art market shops. All the sellers are women and the products they sell are either their own or bought from women providing at homes. The city of Bamiyan is the only urban settlement in the entire Bamiyan Province. It became the center of the then-newly created Bamiyan Province in 1964. The city grew rapidly, but at the same time suffered from the lack of a zoning plan. Bamiyan's bazaar at that time had around 300 to 400 shops and its market
9384-407: The caves of Hindu Kush, and these are now a part of the Schøyen Collection . Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script . According to Alfred Foucher , the Hindu Kush and nearby regions gradually converted to Buddhism by the 1st century CE, and this region was the base from where Buddhism crossed
9522-458: The country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares and other places". In the late 12th century, the historically influential Ghurid empire led by Mu'izz al-Din ruled the Hindu Kush region. He was influential in seeding the Delhi Sultanate , shifting the base of his Sultanate from south of the Hindu Kush range and Ghazni towards the Yamuna River and Delhi. He thus helped bring Islamic rule to
9660-462: The cultural art and history of Afghanistan on February 26, 2001. All news had reports about it around the world. It is all about history's distorting by the commandant of extremist terrorist clerics of the Taliban. At one time, two thousand monks meditated in caves among the sandstone cliffs. The caves were also a big tourist attraction before the long series of wars in Afghanistan. The world's earliest oil paintings have been discovered in caves behind
9798-441: The destroyed statues. Scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have confirmed that the oil paintings, probably of either walnut or poppy seed oil, are present in 12 of the 50 caves dating from the 5th to 9th century. The murals typically have a white base layer of a lead compound, followed by an upper layer of natural or artificial pigments mixed with either resins or walnut or poppy seed drying oils. Possibly,
9936-981: The dialect of Dari spoken in Western Afghanistan stands in between the Afghan and Iranian Persian. For instance, the Herati dialect shares vocabulary and phonology with both Afghan and Iranian Persian. Likewise, the dialect of Persian in Eastern Iran, for instance in Mashhad , is quite similar to the Herati dialect of Afghanistan. In a paper jointly published by Takhar University and the Ministry of Education in 2018, researchers studying varieties of Persian from Iran to Tajikistan, Identified 3 dialect groups (or macro dialects) present within Afghanistan. In an article about various languages spoken in Afghanistan, Encyclopaedia Iranica identified
10074-502: The dialects of Persian spoken in Eastern Iran, and one may make many comparisons between the speech of Herat and Mashhad . The third group recognized by Afghanistan Ministry of Education is Hazaragi . Spoken by the Hazara people , these varieties are spoken in the majority of central Afghanistan including: Bamyan , parts of Ghazni , Daikundi, Laal Sari Jangal in Ghor province, 'uruzgan khas', in
10212-486: The end of Palaeocene . This collision gradually formed the Himalayas, including the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush are a part of the "young Eurasian mountain range consisting of metamorphic rocks such as schist , gneiss and marble, as well as of intrusives such as granite, diorite of different age and size". The northern regions of the Hindu Kush witness Himalayan winter and have glaciers, while its southeastern end witnesses
10350-454: The entire Hindu Kush Himalaya region is home to an estimated 35,000+ species of plants and 200+ species of animals. The high altitudes of the mountains have historical significance in South and Central Asia. The Hindu Kush range was a major center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas . It has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent, a region where
10488-409: The extensive network of galleries on the approach roads was constructed with Soviet financial and technological assistance and involved drilling 2.7 km (1.7 mi) through the heart of the Hindu Kush; since the start of the wars in Afghanistan it has been an active area of armed conflict with various parties trying to control the strategic tunnel. The range has several other passes in Afghanistan,
10626-715: The fifteenth century it appeared in Herat under the Persian-speaking Timurid dynasty . The Persian-language poets of the Mughal Empire who used the Indian verse methods or rhyme methods, like Bedil and Muhammad Iqbal , became familiar with the araki form of poetry. Iqbal loved both styles of literature and poetry, when he wrote: گرچه هندی در عذوبت شکر است Garče Hendī dar uzūbat šakkar ast طرز گفتار دری شیرین تر است tarz-e goftār-e Darī šīrīn tar ast This can be translated as: Even though in euphonious Hindi
10764-525: The first time in 2017 and people make many different foods from only potatoes and music is also part of the Festival. More than 80 percent of the population in Bamyan depends on agriculture products and potato is their main product. Furthermore, Bamyan produces 60 percent of the potatoes in Afghanistan. [1] Dambura is one of the Famous traditional music equipment which is guitar-like is made from mulberry wood, which
10902-490: The fringe of Indian subcontinent summer monsoons. The Hindu Kush range remains geologically active and is still rising; it is prone to earthquakes. The Hindu Kush system stretches about 966 kilometres (600 mi) laterally, and its median north–south measurement is about 240 kilometres (150 mi). The mountains are orographically described in several parts. Peaks in the western Hindu Kush rise to over 5,100 m (16,700 ft) and stretch between Darra-ye Sekari and
11040-487: The history books during the Mughal Empire , especially in connection with Aurangzeb , who had the 53 m tall Buddha statue shot at with cannons during his looting. During the time of the Afghan monarchy, Bamiyan was a bulwark in the central mountain region. At that time, however, the area was still claimed by the Uzbek Miren ruling in the north. They demanded tribute payments, mainly in the form of deliveries from slaves from
11178-448: The increased number of Persian speakers within Afghanistan. The World Factbook states that about 80% of the Afghan population speaks Dari Persian. About 2.5 million Afghans in Iran and Afghans in Pakistan , part of the wider Afghan diaspora , also speak Dari Persian as one of their primary languages. Dari Persian dominates the northern, western, and central areas of Afghanistan, and
11316-784: The introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. The sizable Persian component of the Anglo-Indian loan words in English and in Urdu therefore reflects the Dari Persian pronunciation. For instance, the words dopiaza and pyjama come from the Afghan Persian pronunciation; in Iranian Persian they are pronounced do-piyāzeh and pey-jāmeh . Persian lexemes and certain morphological elements (e.g.,
11454-652: The land cover patterns across the regions. In the HKH, forest cover is mostly distributed in the south and south-eastern areas, where precipitation is more; the grasslands are mostly distributed in the north and north-western parts, while cropland is mostly found in the southern part of the region. The mountainous areas of Hindu Kush range are mostly barren or, at the most, sparsely sprinkled with trees and stunted bushes. From about 1,300 to 2,300 m (4,300 to 7,500 ft), states Yarshater, " sclerophyllous forests are predominant with Quercus and Olea (wild olive); above that, up to
11592-703: The language of the Achaemenids (550–330 BC). In historical usage, Dari refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids . Dari is a name given to the New Persian language since the 10th century, widely used in Arabic (compare Al-Estakhri , Al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Hawqal ) and Persian texts. Since 1964, it has been the official name in Afghanistan for the Persian spoken there. In Afghanistan, Dari refers to
11730-449: The latter would henceforth be named Dari. Within their respective linguistic boundaries, Dari Persian and Pashto are the media of education. The term continues to divide opinion in Afghanistan today. While Dari has been the official name for decades, "Farsi" is still the preferred name to many Persian speakers of Afghanistan. Omar Samad , an Afghan analyst and ambassador, says of the dispute: This debate pits those who look at language as
11868-510: The local Afghan government in helping to establish and manage the park. in Band-e-Amir the deep blue color of the lakes is due to the clarity of the air as well as the purity of the water. The high mineral content of the lakes also causes the intense and varying colors of the lake waters. In addition, Band-e- Amir made from six lakes; Of the six lakes, Band-e Panir is the smallest, with a diameter of approximately 100 m (330 ft). The largest
12006-687: The lowest of which is the southern Shibar pass (2,700 m or 9,000 ft) where the Hindu Kush range terminates. Before the Salang Tunnel , another feat of engineering was the road constructed through the Tang-e Gharu gorge near Kabul, replacing the ancient Lataband Pass and greatly reducing travel time towards the Pakistani border at the Khyber Pass . Other mountain passes are at altitudes of about 3,700 m (12,000 ft) or higher, including
12144-501: The majority of Persian borrowings in several Indo-Aryan languages , such as Urdu , Hindi , Punjabi , Bengali and others, as it was the administrative, official, cultural language of the Persianate Mughal Empire and served as the lingua franca throughout the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Often based in Afghanistan , Turkic Central Asian conquerors brought the language into South Asia. The basis in general for
12282-517: The national park in 2009 after decades of delay due to war, the peaceful Band-e-Amir National Park tells an entirely different story of a country whose recent historical narrative has been defined by violence. Band-e-Amir National Park is located in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, .The WCS, along with a number of international agencies and funding partners including USAID and the United Nations Development Programme, assisted
12420-419: The near future (2036–2065) and by 2.2–3.3 °C (2066–2095) near the end of the century under the "intermediate" Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5). Under the high-warming RCP8.5 scenario where the annual emissions continue to increase for the rest of the century, the expected regional warming is 2.3–3.2 °C and 4.2–6.5 °C, respectively. Under all scenarios, winters will warm more than
12558-593: The northern plains of the Indian subcontinent. In the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire , Genghis Khan invaded the region from the northeast in one of his many conquests to create the huge Mongol Empire . The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta arrived in the Delhi Sultanate by passing through the Hindu Kush. The mountain passes of the Hindu Kush range were used by Timur and his army and they crossed to launch
12696-531: The number of glacial lakes , some of which may be prone to dangerous floods. In the future, if the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 °C of global warming is not exceeded, warming in the HKH will be at least 0.3 °C higher, and at least 0.7 °C higher in the hotspots of northwest Himalaya and Karakoram. If the Paris Agreement goals are broken, then the region is expected to warm by 1.7–2.4 °C in
12834-571: The paintings may be the work of artists who traveled on the Silk Road. The caves at the base of these statues were used by the Taliban for storing weapons. After the Taliban were driven from the region, civilians made their homes in the caves. Recently, Afghan refugees escaped the persecution of the Taliban regime by hiding in caves in the Bamiyan valley. These refugees discovered a fantastic collection of Buddhist statues as well as jars holding more than ten thousand fragments of ancient Buddhist manuscripts,
12972-553: The parrots of India will crack sugar Through this Persian Candy which is going to Bengal Here qand-e Pārsī (" Rock candy of Persia") is a metaphor for the Persian language and poetry. Persian replaced the Central Asian languages of the Eastern Iranics. Ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Darified in originally Khorezmian and Soghdian areas during Samanid rule. Dari Persian spread around
13110-634: The peak in the area of the Kushan Pass , which had become a center of the Kushan Empire by the first century. The range forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region ( HKH ) and is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains , the Karakoram and the Himalayas . It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus ) to the north from the Indus River valley to
13248-449: The post-Sassanid period, and the New era being the period afterward down to the present day. The first person in Europe to use the term Deri for Dari may have been Thomas Hyde in his chief work, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700). Dari or Deri has two meanings. It may mean the language of the court: It may also indicate a form of poetry used from Rudaki to Jami . In
13386-411: The pre-Akbar Mughal and Delhi Sultanate era "sent thousands of Hindus every year north to Central Asia to pay for horses and other goods". However, the interaction between Central Asia and South Asia through the Hindu Kush was not limited to slavery, it included trading in food, goods, horses and weapons. The practice of raiding tribes, hunting, and kidnapping people for slave trading continued through
13524-579: The preferred literary and administrative language among non-native speakers, such as the Turco-Mongol peoples including the Mughals , for centuries before the rise of modern nationalism. Also, like Iranian Persian and Tajiki Persian , Dari Persian is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official religious and literary language of the Sassanian Empire (224–651 AD), itself a continuation of Old Persian ,
13662-463: The presence of snow during winter and summer. This latter statement suggests climatic change which could have contributed to the historical and economic importance of the area for the years to come. Another Buddhist traveller, Xuanzang, passed through Bamyan in the seventh century. His record shows that the Bamiyan Buddhas and cave monastery near it were already built. He also records that Buddhism in
13800-431: The province, and the cold, long winter, lasting for six months, brings temperatures of three to twenty degrees Celsius below zero. Mainly Daizangi Hazara people live in the area. Transportation facilities are increasing, but sparse. Notably, Bamyan is now connected by road to Kabul through Parwan province and Maidan Wardak. The connection between Maidan Shar and Bamyan – 136 km long – makes it possible to reach Kabul in
13938-569: The range include the Khash, the Farah and the Arashkan (Harut) rivers. The basins of these rivers serve the ecology and economy of the region, but the water flow in these rivers greatly fluctuates, and reliance on these has been a historical problem with extended droughts being commonplace. The eastern end of the range, with the highest peaks, high snow accumulation allows to long-term water storage. Geologically,
14076-569: The range is rooted in the formation of the subcontinent from a region of Gondwana that drifted away from East Africa about 160 million years ago, around the Middle Jurassic period. The Indian subcontinent, Australia and islands of the Indian Ocean rifted further, drifting northeastwards, with the Indian subcontinent colliding with the Eurasian Plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards
14214-629: The reach of eagles". In the time of Alexander the Great , the mountain range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas ), and as Paropamisos (see Paropamisadae ) by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BCE. Some 19th-century encyclopedias and gazetteers state that the term Hindu Kush originally applied only to
14352-564: The region was in decay with the people being "hard and uncultivated". The Hephthalites conquered Bamyan in the 5th century. After their Khanate was destroyed by the Sassanids and Turks in 565, Bamyan became the capital of the small Kushano-Hephthalite kingdom until 870, when it was conquered by the Saffarids . Favoured by its location on one of the main trade routes from the West to China and India ,
14490-448: The reports of slavery and other violence for geo-political strategic considerations. The first British invasion of Afghanistan ended in disaster in 1842, when 16,000 British soldiers and camp followers were massacred as they retreated through the Hindu Kush back to India. After 1947 In the colonial era, the Hindu Kush was considered, informally, the dividing line between Russian and British areas of influence in Afghanistan. During
14628-465: The slave markets of Central Asia with slaves seized in South Asia. The seizure and transportation of slaves from the Indian subcontinent became intense in and after the 8th century CE, with evidence suggesting that the slave transport involved "hundreds of thousands" of slaves from India in different periods of Islamic rule era. According to John Coatsworth and others, the slave trading operations during
14766-622: The south, and the Indian Gupta culture was the result of this cultural creation being unique of its kind. The Gandhara culture was already in retreat or largely collapsed when Buddhism experienced a revival here. The two large Buddha statues were constructed on the large rock facing the north side of the valley in the 6th century . Corridors and galleries were carved into the rock around the figures and hundreds of prayer halls and caves were created, some of which were decorated with rich wall paintings. The number of caves currently present in Bamiyan
14904-534: The south. The range has numerous high snow-capped peaks, with the highest point being Tirich Mir or Terichmir at 7,708 metres (25,289 ft) in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan. To the north, near its northeastern end, the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir Mountains near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan near their border. The eastern end of
15042-480: The southeast is approximately 180 kilometres (110 mi). The Band-e-Amir National Park is to the west, about a half-hour drive from the city of Bamyan. Bamyan is referred to by some as the "Shining Light" and "Valley of Gods". There are several tourist attractions near the city, including the Buddhas of Bamyan , which were carved into cliffs on the north side of Bamyan city in the 6th and 7th century CE, dating them to
15180-437: The space and refer to the mountain range as Hindukush . Hindu Kush is generally translated as "Killer of Hindu " or "Hindu-Killer" by most writers. Boyle's Persian–English dictionary indicates that the Persian suffix - koš [koʃ] is the present stem of the verb 'to kill' ( koštan کشتن ). According to linguist Francis Joseph Steingass , the suffix - kush means "a male; (imp. of kushtan in comp.)
15318-473: The start of the common era. The lands north of the Hindu Kush, in the Hephthalite dominion, Buddhism was the predominant religion by mid 1st millennium CE. These Buddhists were religiously tolerant and they co-existed with followers of Zoroastrianism , Manichaeism , and Nestorian Christianity. This Central Asia region along the Hindu Kush was taken over by Western Turks and Arabs by the eighth century, facing wars with mostly Iranians. One major exception
15456-626: The targets of these slave-hunting expeditions. The people of Kafiristan practiced had ancient polytheistic traditions until the 1896 invasion and conversion to Islam at the hands of Afghans under Amir Abdur Rahman Khan . British era The Hindu Kush served as a geographical barrier to the British Empire , leading to a paucity of information and scarce direct interaction between the British colonial officials and Central Asian peoples. The British had to rely on tribal chiefs, Sadozai and Barakzai noblemen for information, and they generally downplayed
15594-448: The term Hindu Kush has two alternate meanings i.e 'sparkling snows of India' and 'mountains of India', with Kush possibly being a soft variant of the Persian kuh ('mountain'). Allan states that Hindu Kush was the frontier boundary to Arab geographers. Yet others suggest that the name may be derived from ancient Avestan , meaning 'water mountain'. According to Hobson-Jobson , a 19th-century British dictionary, Hindukush might be
15732-578: The time of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526), even as those governments were dominated by Pashtun people. Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty (1826–1973) first introduced the Pashto language as an additional language of administration. The local name for the Persian variety spoken in Afghanistan was officially changed from Farsi to Dari, meaning "court language", in 1964. Zaher said there would be, as there are now, two official languages, Pashto and Farsi, though
15870-491: The total area of the HKH region. During the same years, the second dominant land cover was barren areas, including bare soil and bare rock. In 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, bare soil and bare rock covered 32.1, 31.4, 30.4, and 30.7%. The cropland cover in 2000 was about 5.1% and about 5.4% in 2015. Snow and glacier areas covered about 4% of the high-elevation section in 2018, while waterbodies and riverbeds/channels together accounted for 2%. The weather conditions also have an impact on
16008-414: The two share many phonological and lexical similarities. Apart from a few basics of vocabulary, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and Iran ; the languages are mutually intelligible. Dari Persian is the official language for approximately 35 million people in Afghanistan and it serves as the common language for inter-ethnic communication in the country. As defined in
16146-506: The valley is the site of a citadel that guarded the city, and the ruins of an acropolis could be found there as recently as the 1990s. The town is the cultural center of the Hazara ethnic group of Afghanistan. Most of the population lives in downtown Bamyan. The valley is cradled between the parallel mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush and the Koh-i-Baba . Mountains cover ninety percent of
16284-517: The valley itself and on the slopes, there are numerous ruins from earlier times. "Bamiyan is located between the Indian subcontinent (to the southeast) and Central Asia (to the north), which made it an important location close to one of the most important branches of the Silk Route". Situated on the ancient Silk Route , the town was at the crossroads between the East and West when all trade between China and
16422-459: The valley was of great strategic importance. It became a stop for trade caravans, a well-known artistic site and was also a major Buddhist center for centuries. It later fell to the Ghaznavids in the 11th century. Bamiyan was Islamized under the reign of Sultan Mahmud . This was around the time of the first millennium AD. At that time, the center of the city of Bamiyan was moved from the northwest of
16560-534: The valley, where the cliff with the Buddha statues is located, further to the southeast. Some of the fortifications in the valley also date from this period. During the Ghurids rule, Bamiyan was the capital of a large kingdom for about 60 years, namely from 1155 to 1212, which stretched north to the Oxus River (today's Amu Darya). In 1221 the city and its population were said to be completely wiped out by Genghis Khan . It
16698-527: The value of silver in relation to gold dropped, and the content of silver in the Carolingian denarius was increased so that it should maintain its intrinsic value. The range came under the control of the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul but was conquered by Sabuktigin who took all of Jayapala 's dominion west of Peshawar . Mahmud of Ghazni came to power in 998 CE, in Ghazna , Afghanistan, south of Kabul and
16836-571: The vowel diacritic "pesh" ( Kasrah ) was romanized with an "i" for South-Eastern dialects but as an "e" for western dialects. This is presumably due to a difference in quality, however the paper itself did not explain why the vowels were transliterated differently. The South Eastern group (also referred to the Southern and Eastern group) constitutes varieties spoken in and around Kabul , Parwan , Balkh , Baghlan , Samangan , Kunduz , Takhar , Badakhshan and others. A distinctive character of this group
16974-494: The vowel in proximity to, or identically to, [ i ], unless the following syllable contains a high-back vowel. Speakers in western Afghanistan (such as in the Herat or Farah province) and some rural regions in the Kabul province (not the city) most commonly realize the vowel as [ ɛ ]. Additionally, in some varieties of Dari, the phoneme [ ɛ ] appears as an allophone of [a]. Successive governments of Afghanistan have promoted New Persian as an official language of government since
17112-519: The warlords of the local militia. Bamyan is also known as the capital of Daizangi . Ashoka, the ruler of the ancient Indian Maurya dynasty, according to an old inscription, was sent in 261 BC. to convert the area. This was just before the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom declared independence in the northern Hindu Kush region. Under the rule of the Kushana dynasty, Buddhism gradually established itself in
17250-457: The warming rate accelerating to 0.2 °C per decade over the past 50 years. Over the past 50 years, the frequency of warm days and nights had also increased by 1.2 days and 1.7 nights per decade, while the frequency of extreme warm days and nights had increased by 1.26 days and 2.54 nights per decade. There was also a corresponding decline of 0.5 cold days, 0.85 extreme cold days, 1 cold night, and 2.4 extreme cold nights per decade. The length of
17388-516: The water deposited layers of hardened mineral (travertine) that built up into walls that now contain the water. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped the Afghan government set up the park, Band-e-Amir is one of the few travertine systems in the world. Bamyan Despite being one of the country's poorest and least developed regions, Bamiyan remains one of the safest areas of Afghanistan today. For those who helped create
17526-598: The west, they attain heights of 3,500 to 4,000 metres (11,500 to 13,100 ft); in the east they extend from 4,500 to 6,000 metres (14,800 to 19,700 ft). Numerous high passes (" kotal ") transect the mountains, forming a strategically important network for the transit of caravans. The most important mountain pass in Afghanistan is the Salang Pass (Kotal-e Salang) (3,878 m or 12,723 ft) north of Kabul , which links southern Afghanistan to northern Afghanistan. The Salang Tunnel at 3,363 m (11,033 ft) and
17664-448: The western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region ( HKH ); to the north, near its northeastern end, the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir Mountains near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan near their border. The eastern end of the Hindu Kush in the north merges with the Karakoram Range. Towards its southern end, it connects with
17802-683: The written forms, other than regional idiomatic phrases. The phonology of Dari Persian as spoken in Kabul, compared with Classical Persian, is overall more conservative than the accent of Iran's standard register. In this regard Dari Persian is more similar to Tajiki Persian. The principal differences between standard Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian as based on the Kabul dialect are: The dialects of Dari spoken in Northern, Central, and Eastern Afghanistan, for example in Kabul , Mazar , and Badakhshan , have distinct features compared to Iranian Persian . However,
17940-522: Was 175 feet (53 m) high standing statue of Buddha , the world's tallest. The ancient statue was carved during the Kushan period in the fifth century. The statues were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, on the grounds that they were an affront to Islam. Limited efforts have been made to rebuild them, with negligible success. Destroying two giant Buddhas in Bamyan was one of the spectacular and worst attacks against
18078-616: Was a patrilineal descendant of Timur with roots in Central Asia. He first established himself and his army in Kabul and the Hindu Kush region. In 1526, he made his move into north India, and won the Battle of Panipat, ending the last Delhi Sultanate dynasty, and starting the era of the Mughals. Slavery , as with all major ancient and medieval societies, has been a part of Central Asia and South Asia history. The Hindu Kush mountain passes connected
18216-564: Was part of the Kushan Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era. After the Kushan Empire fell to the Sassanids , Bamyan became part of the Kushansha , vassals to the Sassanids. The Buddhist pilgrim Fa Xian visited Bamyan in the fifth century and recorded that the king summoned the monks of the region for vows and prayers. Fa Xian also records landslides and avalanches in the mountains and
18354-676: Was spoken during the rule of the Sassanid dynasty . In general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New (Modern) periods. These correspond to three eras in Iranian history, the old era being the period from some time before, during, and after the Achaemenid period (that is, to 300 BC), the Middle Era being the next period, namely, the Sassanid period and part of
18492-677: Was succeeded by Persian after the arrival of Islam. Dari Persian is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. In practice though, it serves as the de facto lingua franca among the various ethnolinguistic groups. Dari Persian is spoken by approximately 25-80% of the population of Afghanistan . Tajiks , who comprise 27-39% of the population , are the primary native speakers, followed by Hazaras (9%) and Aymāqs (4%). Moreover, while Pashtuns (48%) natively speak Pashto , those living in Tajik and Hazara dominated areas also use Dari Persian as their main or secondary language. Thus, non-native Persian speaking groups have contributed to
18630-449: Was supported by Sultan Mahmud. Al Biruni found it difficult to get access to Indian literature locally in the Hindu Kush area, and to explain this he wrote, "Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed wonderful exploits by which the Hindus became the atoms scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. (...) This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far from those parts of
18768-407: Was the period in the mid to late seventh century when the Tang dynasty from China destroyed the Northern Turks and extended its rule all the way to the Oxus River valley and regions of Central Asia bordering all along the Hindu Kush. The subcontinent and valleys of the Hindu Kush remained unconquered by the Islamic armies until the 9th century, even though they had conquered the southern regions of
18906-421: Was very busy twice a week. Afghanistan established its first national park on April 22, 2009, to promote and protect the natural beauty of a series of intensely blue lakes created by natural dams high in the Hindu Kush. Band-e-Amir is a chain of six lakes in the mountainous desert of central Afghanistan. The lakes formed from mineral-rich water that seeped out of faults and cracks in the rocky landscape. Over time,
19044-457: Was widespread in the ancient Hindu Kush region. The ancient artwork of Buddhism includes the giant rock-carved statues called the Bamiyan Buddhas, in the southern and western end of the Hindu Kush. These statues were destroyed by Taliban Islamists in 2001. The southeastern valleys of Hindu Kush connecting towards the Indus Valley region were a major center that hosted monasteries, religious scholars from distant lands, trade networks and merchants of
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